Capacitors are one of the earliest electrical components and essentially consist of two parallel plates which possess a certain capacity to store an electric charge separated by a dielectric material. The effectiveness of a given capacitor is determined by the structure of the capacitor, the plates, the dielectric material, and the method of fabrication.
Capacitors provide a reliable source of power in many applications. Although they are widely used on integrated circuits (ICs) they are also used as a power supply source for non-IC applications. Capacitors can be manufactured in various shapes and sizes and provide comparable characteristics to other common power supply devices.
Other known and common devices for providing power include batteries and fuel cells. Batteries are a reliable source of power. However, batteries rarely exceed 200 Whr/kg and their cycle life rarely exceeds 1,000 cycles. Further, there appears to be limited ability to dramatically improve the output and cycle life of batteries from a chemistry standpoint. Fuel cells provide power through an electro-chemical process which often provides a cleaner and more environmentally safe device. However, fuel cells have several limitations including high manufacturing costs, complexity, size and weight.
In comparison, capacitors provide advantageous characteristics over batteries and fuel cells in cycle life, size, weight, safety issues, and manufacturing costs. However, conventional and known capacitors have power limitations, including double layer or ultra-capacitors, with these capacitors not exceeding 15 Whr/kg.
Therefore, what is needed is a high performance and high energy-density capacitor with power characteristics achieving and exceeding the power characteristics of known power sources.